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I'm having a problem purchasing from the Kindle Store in the UK with my 2nd generation kindle (3G).

My account was originally with US store then moved to the UK store not too long after Amazon opened the UK store.

The message I get is "The Kindle store is currently unavailable. Please try again later." I can still download already purchased content from both the US & UK stores, so it just means I have to buy via my computer and don't get access to the limited Prime lending library.

My attempts to fix this by speaking to Amazon UK gets the answer speak to Amazon US it's a hardware problem, speaking to Amazon US gets the answer speak to Amazon UK it's an account problem (after being walked through factory default resets etc by both support desks).

What I have noticed (annoyingly after speaking to Amazon) is that the time is out by an hour on the Kindle. Changing network by typing '311' on the setup page doesn't seem to fix this. I'm pretty sure the last thing I purchased via the kindle was on the 3rd of May so I'm not sure if my store problems are related to summer time.

Using @time in the search box displays the time zone as being British Summer Time but out by an hour. The 611 page displays the time as the current local time with a local time offset of +1h.

So my questions are as follows:

a) Is the incorrect time likely to be the reason the Amazon store won't let me connect?

b) If you can't get to the store when the clock is wrong what can I do to correct it?

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  • I've had exactly the same problem - I can't access the store on the kindle - or manage social networks or access the Internet functionality. But I can sync and I can access stuff in my archive. The time is right on my device though. I appreciate it's an old device but like you would like to keep using it while I can.
    – user9928
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 15:21
  • Sounds like the time isn't the problem, if it's still broken after the clocks change then I might ask for a new Kindle for Xmas (solves my wifes what to buy for Christmas problem). Have you tried to raise a case with Amazon support?
    – PeterI
    Commented Aug 21, 2017 at 8:11

1 Answer 1

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First, did you update the firmware https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/20/11271880/amazon-kindle-emergency-update-unable-to-connect-at-this-time

Second, a second gen device is REALLY old (released in 2009). It's probably a good idea to upgrade to a reasonably new device. It's hard to service a model that is more than 8 years old, and sometimes Kindle disables features or won't fix bugs on older models.

You could probably buy a good used model that is 2 years old (say the Paperwhite 2) from ebay or woot (which is owned by Amazon btw) for less than 100$ and probably get better support for these kind of syncing or global issues. Also, there were major changes made in 2013-4 which would improve the layout and design of the text (Bookerly font, support for KF8 format), not to mention performance.

Here's some FAQ about having a Kindle account in multiple countries.

https://www.ereader-palace.com/faq-different-countries-amazon-kindle-stores-accounts/

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  • Yep did the update, while I appreciate the device is old, battery life still seems to be reasonable and I'd like to keep using it until either the battery gives out (or I drop it and crack the screen). The real question is the time a problem?
    – PeterI
    Commented Aug 11, 2017 at 20:09

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